Tenergy Universal Smart Charger Review

As battery sophistication and varieties grow, the demand for smart chargers to handle multiple types of batteries rises. The Team Tenergy Universal Smart Charger (model 01025) for 6 volt to 12 volt NiMH and NiCd batteries services that purpose. It could charge battery packs that contains five to ten 1.2 volt cells.

The photo below shows the retail package of the Team Tenergy Universal Smart Charger.

The package contains the smart charger with standard Tamiya connector and AC plug, standard Tamiya to mini Tamiya adapter, standard Tamiya to alligator clips, and instruction sheet. The photo below shows the content of the package.

From a distance, it seems that the Tenergy Universal Smart Charger has three indicator lights. But close up, you see that it only has one indicator lights (see photo below). The other two dots are legends for the indicator. When the indicator is flashing, it means it is not charging a battery. When the indicator is red, battery is being charged. When the indicator turns solid green, the battery is fully charged.

A switch lets you choose to charge the batter at 1 amp or at 2 amp. For battery packs between 1000 mAh and 2000 mAh, you are suppose to use 1 amp. For battery packs between 2000 mAh and 5000 mAh, you are suppose to use 2 amp. You cannot use this smart charger to charge battery packs lower than 1000 mAh nor higher than 5000 mAh.

Full charge on a 2000 mAh battery, at 1 amp rate, takes 150 minutes (2.5 hours). Full charge on a 5000 mAh battery, at 2 amp rate, takes 210 minutes (3.5 hours). Depends on the capacity of your battery, you can use these numbers to determine your charge time.

The Tenergy Universal Battery Charger has switching circuitry (see photo below), which allows you to use it all over the world. It support 100 volts to 240 volts input, alternating at 50 Hz to 60 Hz.

The back of the instruction sheet showed a temperature sensor to attach to the battery. However, we didn't notice it when we unpacked the charger. It turned out that the temperature sensor is stuffed into the positive terminal port on the charging plug (see photo below). We charged two NiMH batteries without removing the temperature from the plug. Maybe it was stuffed there on purpose, checking the positive metal terminal's temperature. We were not sure if that would really work. Yet, the Smart Charger was still able to detect that the battery pack was fully charged.

We removed the temperature sensor from the plug (shown in the photo below). We attached the temperature to the battery ever since finding the temperature sensor. We rather be safe than sorry. Taping the sensor to the battery is a little troublesome. The trick we used is to place the battery on top of the sensor on the table; keeping it in place.

Overall, the Tenergy Universal Smart Charger is an inexpensive charger that can safely charge your battery packs without overcharging them. It works well with a variety of full size and mini battery packs that we threw at it--7.2v, 8.4v, 9.6v, NiMH, NiCd, etc.

The Tenergy Universal Smart Charger is small and light weight, which is great for carrying to your destination. It's auto-shut off when the battery is full allows you to plug in the battery and walk away (keep in mind the user manual advises you to monitor the progress when you use high charging current).